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Magic dominate the inside, take down Bucks

Apr 10, 2007 - 5:31 AM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- The Milwaukee Bucks had no answer for the Orlando Magic's inside presence.

Dwight Howard, Tony Battie, Darko Milicic and Trevor Ariza combined to shoot 22-of-26 to lead the Magic to an easy 117-94 victory over the Bucks.

The Magic outscored the Bucks, 68-30, in the paint and pulled within a half-game of idle New Jersey (36-40) for seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

"As of late, it's not just about who we play," Howard said, "but more about me going out and trying to dominate from the opening tip."

Hedo Turkoglu took care of the outside scoring load, pouring in 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting, including 4-of-5 from the arc. Ariza had 16 points and Howard added 15 and 11 rebounds as Orlando shot 63 percent (50-of-80).

"It's always tough when you play a team like this, they have nothing to lose," Turkoglu said. "We were focused and took care of our business."

The Magic broke open the game with a 23-8 run over the last nine minutes of the third quarter and the first minute of the fourth, pushing the lead to 91-67 with 11:07 remaining. Turkoglu scored seven points during the spurt.

"Inside, outside," Turkoglu said, "we played together with a lot of drive and kicks, just played ball."

"As we come down to these last couple games and into the playoffs, it's going to be about guys knocking down shots," Howard said. "Probably my first target is Turkoglu knocking down threes."

Orlando (36-41), which had assists on 36 of its 50 field goals, extended its lead over idle Indiana (34-42) to 1 1/2 games for the final playoff spot in the East.

Ersan Ilyasova scored 18 points to lead the Bucks, who were without the frontcourt presence of Andrew Bogut, Brian Skinner and Charlie Villanueva, all of whom will miss the remainder of the regular season due to injury.

"Obviously they were undermanned and short with size," Magic coach Brian Hill said. "To start the game we knew that was where we had to go, where we had favorable matchups."

The Magic are trying to earn their first playoff appearance since the 2002-03 season.

Bucks All-Star guard Michael Redd also missed the game and will be shut down for the year with persistent left knee pain.